Also, SIS Agent, Imperial Trooper, Force Adept (could be a neutral, non-factional class). There are opportunities.

I would like to see a neutral station that both sides can visit and have dailies/missions from that hub.

I would like to see a neutral station that both sides can visit and have dailies/missions from that hub.

Ziost? Yavin?

The part in bold is important because it basically allows them to easily bury any revenue decreases this game is making (not making?) and not actually have to make them public because let's be honest ... such declines would be a drop in the bucket in this massive category over all.

EA defines Live Services as:

“EA’s games today are live services — amazing experiences that we update and evolve to deliver ongoing fun that keeps players engaged, connects them to friends, brings them more content and grows our network,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, during an analyst conference call today. “This strategy has been at the core of our digital transformation, and today our live services are some of the strongest and most vibrant in the industry.”

This is a pivotal element of EAs future growth plans. As such.. they are NOT going to single out an MMO and show case it within their lives services model. Why? Because it is the big box sales that run after sale on a live services model that garners their largest growth in market share and revenue. EAs investor communications model has always been that of a large holding company, and as such they do not disclose specifics on each product or service except if it is a brand new launch, and/or it represented a material change in quarterly financial performance.

You'll know when SWTOR is actually "on life support" when you see them doing no more expansions... period.. full stop.

[*]Umbara Stronghold – This is the most unique stronghold yet, as you will be able to decorate your own moving train.

Please ... please tell me that we'll have to defend our trains from masked bandits mounted on steeds of some biological or mechanical variety. We need a whole mini game where we ride Collicoid-Games-Esque turrets mounted on the tops of our Stronghold-Trains, and when we get overwhlemed and the masked bandits board, we dismount and defend the train with our sabers and blasters.

Rewards? I think a weekly crate with a guaranteed 248 sounds about right. A SELECTABLE 248.

Also, please PvP this too.

I don't think that's asking too much. That's like, what? A few days of development? At MOST?

Oh, almost forgot, guild stronghold trains can be used for guild-v-guild PvP for like a dozen crates of 248 gear per winner per week. That's like, a few extra hours of dev time.

I'm looking forward to this content. Thank you!

EDIT: ALSO, the reward crates should be delivered by a swooning companion of the player's choice. This needs a whole unboxing interface of epic companion swoonage, like the new unboxing interface you guys unveiled a while back. That's like another few hours dev time. Totally.

still outstanding that a MMO like star wars didn't propose a new class in 5+ years .... not even mentionned by devs...

 

ALL mmorpg proposed a new class at least once, ALL !

 

this shows the poor budget and possibilities that bw have for this game.

Bioware is a victim of it's own success on this. making a new class would require a brand new 1-50 story arc. THAT is a lot of resources for something that probably will not actually expand/retain players as subscribers anyway.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Credits too? (Cover your ears so you don't hear the scream) YAY!

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

That is amazing news. Huge QoL improvement, and a huge improvement for playstyle choices too. Thanks, Keith, and have a great weekend.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the update. Comments below

• Class Changes in 5.4 - We will make posts around each of the upcoming Class changes, akin to what we did with 5.3. My hope is to start those next week. Either way I will give you a better idea of timing next week.

• DPS/Heal/Mitigation targets for each class
  
• Hard data to back up your view vs the players' one
  

Season 8 Rewards - The rewards blog is nearly finished and will contain all the deets, including tier breakdowns and reward screenshots. I am pretty confident it will go up next week as well. I will give you a status update next week.

Appreciated, hopefully it won't be recolored assets.

Unassembled Component Changes - As Keith alluded to previously, there are Unassembled Component changes coming to PvP Mission Rewards. The TLDR is that we want you to be able to get more Unassembled Components each week overall while also making Ranked play a bit more appealing. We are in the final stages of locking down these exact numbers and so look for a post on this next week with the specifics.

The issue with ranked is not that much the gear, it's they don't pop-up even on the most populated servers.

Fix server population and then we can speak about gear.

Follow-up on Bolster discussion - It was clear from the discussion thread that most of you would like to see Bolster go as high as possible, while still meeting our teams goal of having gear progression be relevant. We will be increasing Bolsters to 242 in PvP for GU 5.5 as well.

Gear stats progression has no place in PvP. Please check all other major PvP games.

Want to make PvP interesting: make the progression about gear and character look, spaceships, strongholds decorations, vehicles, mounts...

Umbara Stronghold - There were some questions about how this works. In short, you will need to run the Flashpoint to earn currency. That currency can be used to purchase rewards from a vendor, including a key to purchase the Stronghold. Once you have the key, you can then unlock the Stronghold for a reduced amount of Credits/CC. You cannot outright purchase the Stronghold, it has to be earned by running the Flashpoint to get the key.

Way to force players into something they might not like.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Wait, hold up a second, did you just say Credits are going to be Legacy Wide??!?!!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Keith... You sure know how to end the week...

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

Very interesting, thanks for the advance notice, this is appreciated.

I do have some concerns about this.

First, any legacy-wide currency will also have a legacy-wide limit. I do hope that you will increase the limit when the components are merged to make up for it. For example, the players who have hit the 4 billion credit cap should not lose any credits when they are merged legacy-wide.

Unless of course, you intentionally want to set a cap. For example, I would be semi-okay with adding a 100 million credit cap to legacy. This would cause a huge outcry at first, but would help prevent inflation by forcing players to invest more instead of stockpiling credits. It would bring down all GTN prices and make it easier for new players to catch up.

On the other hand, you could leave it as is at a 4 billion cap, but then I hope you have some other solution ready to fight inflation.

I hate legacy-wide credits because if I misclick in the GTN or accidentally buy a 9999 stack from a vendor, I can easily lose all of my credits with zero chance to get them back. Right now, when I lose all my credits on one character, at least I still have some credits on my other characters and don't have to start again at 0. With legacy-wide credits, this safety net does not exist anymore, which makes me wary of it and I'd rather have a way to turn it off because for my playstyle, legacy-wide credits are not needed.

I do hope that you will not convert all currency-type items into real currencies. For example, Completed Bounty Contracts are a great way for new players, or players who don't care about cosmetics, to earn credits. This is possible because they are in your inventory/bank, but won't be possible if you put them in the currency tab.

Not every player likes cosmetics, and giving players a way to convert tokens into credits should be included. For example, I've had 100/100 Light Side & Dark Side Tokens on my main for months now, because I don't care about any of the items sold by the vendor.

So please keep the existing currencies and do not convert other non-currency items into currencies, then I'm fine with this change.

Once again, thanks for the advanced notice.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

I hope you have a credits solution because what about players that have more than the credit cap you are going to screw us over with legacy credits i would be super angry because we all know what happens when u hit the cap any you earn you lose.

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

-Keith--

Better late then never. Good change. I hope your new vision of the game is to make more and more things stream lined for alts. I honestly believe this is an alt game, and its finally good to see you embrace things like legacy currencies.

It would be awesome to see your team move more in this direction. It was suggested in the pvp forum to make Legacy gear have adaptable set bonuses, so those that play all classes don't have to have 8+ suits of armor, that in itself could ease alot of the gear grind gripes that you see floating around here on the forums. Would also reduce the clutter and just make stream lining alt play alot smoother. I know its far fetched, but it would be awesome to only have to gear out once and not have to worry about it anymore, ofc, each alt still has to gear out implants/ear/relics, so the progression and grind won't totally go away, but it would definitely ease it if I only had to gear up armor once.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Keith,

respectfully the current gearing system is messy.

It's not fun, too complex and finally the naming convention isn't clear.

Please do a focus group and sit new casual players in your game and let them try to understand the whole gearing system in place by themselves.

Then how about doing a survey?

Ask current and former players to rate:

• Ger progression
  
• CXP progression
  
• RNG
  
• Gearing alts
  
• PVP rewards
  
• Gearing complexity
  
• Gear storage management
  
• Gear impact on PvP
  

P.S.: making currencies legacy wide is indeed a HUGE improvement. Please don't hinder it with any caps of sorts at least for Subs.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

My instant reaction after reading

...

P.S.: making currencies legacy wide is indeed a HUGE improvement. Please don't hinder it with any caps of sorts at least for Subs.

With the mention of credits going legacy wide, It's sad that my first reaction is wonder if anyone left on the skeleton crew actually knows that an unsigned 32bit integer will only hold from 0 to 4,294,967,295.

Still waiting on the FP access gating questions.

You're on a roll today!

The idea here is to reduce the cost of buying a stronghold by using your investment in time to lower the overall acquisition cost versus paying the full pop with either Cartel Coins or credits. We thought, hey, let's try something new where an activity you'd do anyway, you could benefit from your efforts and obtain a key from a currency you automatically get by running the Flashpoint.

 

Unless we change it before release, 10x for Story/solo mode, or 6x for Veteran, or 3x for Master Mode will give you enough currency to buy the Key from the vendor. What I don't know, yet, is the reduction amount for credits or Cartel Coins. Soon as that gets finalized, we'll post it up.

 

Keith---

Don't pretend like you don't have some idea of the cost reduction already ...

It's going to need to be seen as significant in regards to other stronghold costs otherwise this plan will backfire on you in regards to player good will.

It wouldn't even hurt to take a tiered approach with your starting points above as the minimum to get the key and the largest cost and then more grind to get credit cost decreases from there - heck even have it so people could ideally get a free stronghold and then you're looking at some goodwill.

I think it's a solid plan if you do it well, if you just knock 500K off the price and room unlocks cost the same ... prepare yourself for the nuclear fallout.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Legacy credits ... well color me impressed. Nice though I can't help but think ... "what's the catch?".

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes ... credits, ...

Does this mean we no longer will have to shuffle credits from one toon to another? One place for all our credits?

Changing what people see as bad writing with writing that is worse isn't really an improvement, even if it's a convenient setup for some situations. I remember how upset some people were when Arthas died, but it turned out ok. While WoW does seem like it has a lot more to work with and they did have villains left, The lich king was a pretty big deal. If the writers at bioware want to, they can figure something out, there is no end to creativity.

But a bad dream really, really is a poor cop out.

Well this is ALWAYS going to be subjective of course but I never wanted my character to end up at such a ... famous/infamous position in the end, I prefered to be in the background/shadows doing my thing. I hate that I've been rail roaded to where I am (thus the whole alliance thing bugged the **** out of me as all I wanted to do was execute almost everyone).

So for me, if it were a dream and I could get a more singular story that would be great ... as I said, subjective.

As of right now, it is not a Legacy currency. But, I know exactly what you're thinking, so let me pre-announce something which I suspect will make you smile, while at the same time, irritate you because I won't tell you when until I update the Roadmap.

 

We are working to change currencies to be Legacy based. This includes unassembled components, credits, the Umbara currency, and more. I'm not aware of any major obstacles preventing this from happening, and doing so will help with a number of changes we are planning for the future.

 

I know that doesn't solve the concern about having to run the Flashpoint multiple times on one character, but once you have the Key to open the Stronghold, you can use the currency for other items on the vendor.

 

Have a good weekend,

 

-Keith--

Keith, so happy to have you forging the future of the game now, wish you were lead 3 years ago!